I live in New Jersey. More than likely, it’s probably not at the top of your list when you think green. Sure, it’s the Garden State, but in most minds, green ends there. Especially if you only see the area of Jersey around the airport. It’s quite gray in those parts.

But a lot of NJ is shockingly pretty—fall is amazing here—and green. And I’m lucky that the neighborhood I live in affords me the opportunity to green-up my daily life. Not only do they come pick up recycling for free at the curb twice monthly, but I can also walk to almost everything I need. My walkable neighborhood includes:

Man, if there was a grocery store, a Target and a Chipotle, I’d never leave this five-block radius! It’s nice to be able to walk to run errands. It means that I get more exercise, and I save on gas while helping the environment. Plus, it’s easier to stroll with the kids rather than loading and unloading them from the car repeatedly. And you guys: I signed up for a Zumba class at a nearby park location, but realized there is a new Zumba and kickboxing studio in my downtown area. Two Zumba options?! I’m going to dance my heart back into fit!

Do you live in a walkable neighborhood? What do you wish you could walk to? —Erin

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6 Comments

Both my fiance and I have lived in cities before so we’re currently dyyyying living in the suburban sprawl of Northern VA. We have to drive to everything and we loathe it (particularly that each of our jobs are at least 25 miles from the house). This time next year we expect to be living in a more metropolitan area that allows us to walk to at LEAST 80% of all the things. Yay for walking!

Oh, I’m soooo jealous. I *can* walk to a few places, but … Well, it’s fine distance-wise. I have a grocery store, liquor store, sushi place, and pizza joint a little over a quarter mile away, and my gym, a Starbucks, and a bunch of other places are in a little town center thing a couple of miles down the road. But the problem is, there’s not a sidewalk or anything on the road right off of my house, and it’s a busy road, so while it might be a short trip, it’s really, really unpleasant.

Back in the day, when I lived in Hillsborough, NH , AH MAN, what an incredibly walkable town !
My sisters, brother and I would walk to school, the skate park, the pizza house, Cumberland Farms {where my Mom worked 😉 } and whenever we wanted to go over our friend’s houses’, we would walk there too !

I miss those days 🙁

I do live within walking distance of doctors’ and dentists’, but they do not accept my insurance, so I have to use the car. However, I do walk with my son to school 🙂

I live in Montreal, QC, and I walk everywhere. It takes me 30 minutes to walk to work and everything else is way closer. The gym is literally in my backyard, so no excuses to miss a class. There’s a baker around the corner (dangerous), a beautiful park (with free bootcamp classes!), a hospital, many restaurants and everything else I need. If I don’t feel like walking or I’m in a hurry, I use the public bike system. It keeps me active and I don’t need a car. 🙂